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Scott Wegener is a multi award-winning creative writer who believes in looking on the lighter side of life’s predicaments but still values how serious life is. This site features a wide variety of Scott's published and performed works. If you want to use any of these pieces, or commission something origional, contact Scott Wegener

Feb 3, 2018

The Why Thousand Years

Brief: Article about the Seventh-day Adventist fundamental belief 28 about the Millennium

Published: RECORD - February 3, 2018

Stopovers when travelling by air are generally good to avoid. That
way you’re lessening the risk of disconnected flights, not to mention
the opportunity for luggage to go missing.
However, there’s one stopover that will be a rewarding experience,
even though it involves a 1000-year wait to go home—without your baggage
too.
I’m talking about a stopover to end all stopovers—the millennium in heaven spoken about in the Bible.
It’s a common belief that people will be going to heaven for
eternity. However, a little Bible study reveals we’re only there for a
mere 1000-year stopover—and I say “only” because that’s not much longer
than our great-great-(etc)-grandfather, Methuselah, lived for. After
that we arrive back home on earth again. This means the rousing last
verse of Amazing Grace really needs to be sung “When we’ve been there 1000 years . . .” to be biblically correct.
But don’t get upset at being returned to earth. I agree the
proposition of leaving heaven to end up back on earth initially sounds
like you’ve being downgraded from first-class luxury to miserable-class
torture. But fear not, the earth is being reinstalled to its original
sin-free goodness soon after our return.
What’s this 1000-year stopover all about? Why not just stay here and
have the earth renewed at the second coming of Jesus? Or why not stay in
heaven for eternity? Why is this stopover so important? Why should I
even care if this stopover happens or not? And why does millennium have
two n’s? All fair questions.
It turns out the millennium stopover is probably one of the most
important 1000 years in the universe’s history! True? Well, you be the
judge.
Actually, that’s it. You really are going to be the judge. During the
1000 years we’re going to have all the evidence to judge the lost not
among us. In judging the lost, we’ll essentially be judging God and if
each decision He made, including who is not in heaven, was
justified or not. So the ultimate judgement isn’t really about humans,
it’s judging the Judge, the Lord God Almighty, and if He’s as just and
loving as He proclaims to be.
But why is it so important to judge God? Shouldn’t we just have faith that He’s right and not ask questions?
I’d like to suggest this: unless we have satisfactory closure of
every doubt, every suspicion, every disappointment God had the power to
stop but didn’t, then sometime in the future, be it 100 years or 100
gillion years, some being will find a doubt that will fester and grow
and then eventually . . . war against God’s motives and authority will
break out again. (Hands up, who wants sin 2.0 in the universe?)
Crazy talk? If rebellion happened in a perfect universe once,
rebellion can happen again, unless we have clear evidence of the results
of turning away from God’s authority and have an ultimate and
indisputable demonstration of how much God really does love His
creations. Our job in these 1000 years is to compile the case study of
sin and God and we’ll have the conclusion as an eternal record, which
demonstrates without doubt, God’s perfect love and justice.
I can’t stand the horrors this world now houses, but I understand
earth’s relatively short period of turmoiled time has to properly show
how repugnant life is when a planet wanders away from God’s way. This is
so no-one will ever be able to conclude things weren’t all that bad
away from God or that God was too quick to destroy the mutineers. It’s
in the millennium we can all sit down, without the master deceiving
angel manipulating the facts—as he will be confined to a peopleless
earth in this time—and judge who deserves our worship for eternity. Then
we can put an end to sin forever.
It’s common to focus on the pleasures of life in heaven that will be
inconceivably wonderful. Reuniting with loved ones, meeting new friends
and reformed enemies, living with 100 per cent good health, not having a
worry in the universe, creamy mashed potato on tap, and being able to
converse with our guardian angel and ultimately the one and only Jesus
and Lord God Almighty. But I think the most important attribute of our
time in heaven will be the opportunity to ask why about everything, and get satisfying and truthful answers.
The why question starts from childhood. Covering science, “why is the
sky blue?”, to leadership, “why can’t I have an ice-cream now?”, to
more life-impacting questions, “why isn’t daddy coming home?”
The more you live, the more whys stack up in your mind. Why do bad
things happen to good people? Why is the lying and stealing business
“hotshot” getting away with fortunes while the church lady who feeds the
homeless struggles to pay rent?
Why did God allow my uncles to be killed in a plane crash? Why is one
child born healthy and its sibling have a life of restricted abilities?
I suspect you have a list written on your heavy heart too.
And such questions don’t really get any bigger than Why did God
create Satan if He knew the pain that would follow—including His Son’s
death? If God is all knowing, all powerful and all loving, why does He
allow bone cancer, cerebral palsy, rape, murder, tsunamis and bushfires?
Why?!
These whys must be answered satisfactorily and it’s only after we are
restored to perfection, and have taken a step away from sin and the
influence of the tempter, that we can accurately judge God’s actions, or
apparent lack of actions as it seems to us now.
At the close of the 1000 years, for a short while, every single human
being who ever lived will be alive on the earth and separated into two
camps: those who love God and accepted His offer of life, and those who
refused God’s offer. Then, after a short but unquenchable hellfire with
eternal consequences, the earth will be cleansed of all sin and be made
new. From that point we can move forward into eternal peace and joy.
But what if some being in the universe again grows an inkling to
question the genuineness of God’s love and authority? There will always
be the ability to doubt and ultimately rebel if anyone wants to, because
that’s what free will and love is—the ability to choose not to love.
However, this time round, all a doubter will need to do after the
millennium is sit at the scarred feet of Jesus and listen to the history
of earth, and testimonies from its residents, and there will be no
doubt as to the strength of God’s love for all. The evidence will be
indisputable.
I don’t think the millennium is too far away now. Until then keep
your heart singing through life’s sometimes unbearably painful moments
because peace and joy are on the way, as are satisfying answers.

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Scott Wegener holds the copyright to this piece, along with everything else on www.ScottPublished.com , but he may well let you use it elsewhere, just ask! This was written by Scott Wegener to accommodate a specific brief. If you want something written specifically for your needs, just ask for a quote!